'I had to pull over,' says Ryan Bader, mixed martial arts fighter known for his skills in the ring. Ryan is talking about the moment he got a call from film director, Benny Safdie, to be in a movie with Dwayne Johnson called The Smashing Machine. The biopic is all about the life and career of MMA Fighter, Mark Kerr. Safdie was looking for someone to play the part of Kerr's good friend Mark Coleman, a fellow fighter.
Ryan says the offer was exciting but also scary since he had never acted in a film before. However, Ryan says it was scary in 'a good way'. 'I'm drawn to what scares me, it's the best feeling in the world when you succeed,' said Ryan. Ryan met Mark Coleman a few times and got to know him well. Coleman even spent the day on set watching Ryan portray him. Ryan said this intimidated him a bit, but Coleman's only advice was 'Make me look like a savage.'
The film focuses on Mark Kerr's rise in the early days of mixed martial arts and his battle with substance abuse. MMA fighting was not fully accepted yet and Ryan credits both Kerr and Coleman with being pioneers and legends in the sport. 'To see what they went through, the dark side, and the brutality in the sport.' Ryan says they paved a path for fighters like him to be more respected. Of course the sport has come a long way since Kerr's time, with changes in safety, more recovery time, and better therapies.
For Ryan, the shift from fighting to acting was not entirely unnatural. Both require being in front of a camera and an element of drama. Ryan enjoyed being on set and acting opposite Johnson and Emily Blunt. Ryan says shoots could mean long days, but it felt like a big family, and he enjoyed filming in both Canada and Japan. Ryan says he prepared for the role by watching a lot of MMA footage so that he could copy Coleman's fighting style. In the end, Ryan says he hopes he has done justice in telling their story.
The Smashing Machine opens in theaters October 3rd.